Molecular Farming - Part Two
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Modern biotechnology gives scientists the tools to edit genomes and more easily develop crops with better outcomes for producers and consumers. But these tools beg the question: where should a company focus their efforts to improve the food system? ELO Life Systems CEO Todd Rands says they look for desirable molecules found in nature that are difficult to grow commercially.
Rands… “For our process, it starts with what's the moonshot. So we start there with what are the big problems and where can we fit in and solve some of those things. And then we go to the pain points of, okay, well what's wrong in the industry today? Or where are the super expensive ingredients that they just can't get enough of because there's no other means to produce them. So are we strip mining forests for a particular rare ingredient, or are we doing something that's entirely unsustainable in producing certain spices or flavors that we can solve for? And not surprisingly, those things are incredibly expensive and the food companies can't get enough of them, and they could have tremendous health benefits, but just don't get used because of that. Well, we can come in and solve that problem. We can give them a supply at an affordable price and in sometimes a much better product.”
ELO’s first product from their molecular farming platform is a natural sweetener found in monk fruit, not able to be grown commercially in watermelons.
